The 1.5 update brought a bunch of content to Stardew Valley, including the Island Field Office with Professor Snail. Here, you can trade in fossils and get several Golden Walnuts, along with other rewards. In this guide, we are going to go over how to get every fossil needed for the Field Office.

To access this content, you will need to finish the Community Center. Once you have finished this, there will be one additional task to repair Willy's boat to Ginger Island. This will take 200 hardwood, five battery packs, and five iridium bars. After you gather these materials, you can head to Ginger Island.

Updated December 11, 2023 by Jacqueline Zalace: We've tweaked the formatting of this guide a bit, allowing you to quickly find the Stardew Valley fossils of Ginger Island and donate them to the Field Office in no time.

How To Unlock The Field Office

Prior to donating fossils, you will need to unlock the Ginger Island Field Office. This is pretty easy, so let's go over the steps to unlock the office.

First, you will need to repair the bridge leading to the dig site. From the beach where Willy's boat is, head north. You will enter into a new area with a path leading towards a tent. To the left of this tent, you will see a small river with a broken bridge.

To repair the bridge, you will need to pay ten Golden Walnuts to the parrot next to it.

The bridge will then be repaired, and you can enter into the dig site area. Using a bomb or exploding ammo, remove the boulder in front of the cave on the top part of the site. This will free Professor Snail, who runs the Ginger Island Field Office. Once freed, he will talk about the different flora and fauna of Ginger Island, allowing you to make donations.

In total, there are 11 fossils that you will need to donate, so let's take a look at them next. Each collection will have individual rewards as well.

Where To Find Snake Fossils

• Completion Rewards:
  • 3x Golden Walnuts
  • 1x Mango Sapling

To complete the snake, you will need three fossils; a snake skull and two snake vertebrae. Below, you can check out a chart with where to find these.

Fossil	Location(s)	Image
Snake Skull	Artifact Spots on the west side of Ginger Island Fishing on the west side of Ginger Island Artifact Spots at the Dig Site area
Snake Vertebrae (2 required)	Artifact Spots on the west side of Ginger Island

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Overall, you can find all of these fossils on the west side of Ginger Island, where Birdie and the Island Farm are located.

To get here, you will need to approach the turtle on the left side of the starting beach and pay the nearby parrot ten Golden Walnuts. This is a one-time purchase; after paying, you can enter Island West as frequently as you want.

Where To Find Large Mammal Fossils

• Completion Rewards:
  • 6x Golden Walnuts
  • 1x Banana Sapling

To complete the large mammal, you will need six fossils. These can be found at various locations around the island, so let's go over them below.

Fossil	Location(s)	Image
Fossilized Leg (you will need 2 of these)	Break bone nodes at the Dig Site
Fossilized Ribs	Artifact Spots on the southern part of the island (the beach area where Willy's boat docks) Break bone nodes at the Dig Site
Fossilized Skull	Opening Golden Coconuts
Fossilized Spine	Fishing in the Dig Site River Artifact Spots on the southern part of the island (the beach area where Willy's boat docks)
Fossilized Tail	Panning in Dig Site River (you will unlock the ability to pan once the Golden Boulder has been removed)

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How To Get Golden Coconuts

You may have noticed that the skull can only be found in Golden Coconuts. These are coconuts that act similarly to geodes and artifact troves.

Golden Coconuts can be found around the island from Artifact Spots or palm trees. Alternatively, you can trade ten normal coconuts for one Golden Coconut at the Island Trader. This is a vendor that you can unlock for ten Golden Walnuts after purchasing the Island Farmhouse. Because of this, it may be quicker for you to find a Golden Coconut first.

Where To Find The Mummified Frog

• Completion Reward:
  • 1x Golden Walnut

This is a very easy fossil to obtain. The mummified frog can be found by cutting weeds in the jungle area. You can find the entrance to the jungle on the right side of the beach with Willy's boat. If you are in this area, you just need to swing your sword or scythe around until all the grass is cut.

If, for some reason, you don't get the frog, wait a bit until the grass has grown back, and then return with your sharp weapon in hand.

In addition to the mummified frog, you can also find Leo's hut and the Banana Shrine in the jungle.

There is only one part of the mummified frog, so once you find it, you are done with this part of the collection.

Where To Find The Mummified Bat

• Completion Reward:
  • 1x Golden Walnut

Similar to the mummified frog, there is only one piece to this fossil. You can find the mummified bat by breaking rocks in the Volcano Dungeon. This is the northernmost area of Ginger Island.

There is a one in 200 chance for you to find a mummified bat when you break rocks. This isn't too great, but you can speed up the finding process by bringing a strong pickaxe, as well as some bombs.

By placing a bomb down (and running away from the blast), you can clear large sections of rocks that potentially hold a mummified bat.

Accidentally Getting Rid Of Fossils

Did you accidentally sell or throw away a fossil? Fortunately, you can find these fossils more than once. All you need to do is use the methods listed above to find it again. It's highly likely that you will naturally find more fossil copies while exploring the island.

If you do happen to have extra fossils that you don't need, you can sell them. Each fossil piece will sell for 100g. This isn't the best, considering the high price of many late-game items, but it's still better than nothing.

There are no other uses for fossils outside of donating to Professor Snail, so selling extras is the best option.

Rewards For Completing The Entire Collection

In addition to rewards for each fossil, you will receive a reward after completing the entire collection.

Once you turn in 11 fossils, you will be rewarded with the recipe for the Ostrich Incubator. This is a special incubator that allows you to hatch an ostrich from an egg.

The recipe requires 50 Bone Fragments, 50 Hardwood, and 20 Cinder Shards. Once crafted, you can place an ostrich egg inside. It will take around ten days for the egg to hatch. When the egg hatches, you will have your very own ostrich, which will lay one egg every seven days.

One normal quality ostrich egg has a base price of 600g. When placed in the mayonnaise machine, the egg will produce a stack of ten mayonnaise. Although this only happens once a week, it's still a better rate than normal chickens, who can each only produce up to seven mayonnaises per week.